DOH Secretary Herbosa warns public no ZERO BILLING for road crash patients found drunk-driving or without helmet

Tabuk City, Kalinga – Amid the alarming death rate due to road crash incidents in the country, the Department of Health warned the public of disqualification from ‘zero balance billing’ at the hospital if they into an accident violating traffic laws.

“If we do not act, we will end up with a population that either died on the road or permanently disabled… Today, I am announcing that if you are admitted because you are not wearing a helmet, you’re not wearing a seatbelt, you were drinking, you are now disqualified from the zero balance bill,” DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa warned on September 11.

Herbosa revealed that there are 13,000 Filipino lives lost to road accidents annually in the country, this is 35 deaths a day. He added that in the 5,083 road traffic injuries documented by DOH in its Online National Electronic Injury Surveillance Data in July 2025, 3,197 incidents were not wearing helmets (this is 94.5% of the 3,382 road crashes involving motorcycles).

Herbosa further disclosed that 205 involved were drunk driving.

“Kung uminom ka, nag-drive ka, you end up in my emergency department, you end up in my trauma department. You answer your phone while driving, you end up in my emergency department. If you’re lucky. The problem is 13,000 a year are not lucky. They end up dying in a road,” he stressed.

The DOH secretary who is a trauma surgeon and emergency physician asserted that road crash is a public health, economic, and social problem; however, it is preventable.

Currently, DOH shoulders the bills of road crash accident patients who are at the basic accommodation; however, the health agency is now looking into the possibility of crafting a policy that will disqualify road crash patients who are driving drunk, driving without helmet, and other traffic violations from the Zero Balance Billing. 

DOH eyes to reduce road crash deaths and serious injuries in the Philippines by 50% in 2028.